Matteo Salvini

Matteo Salvini (9 March 1973-) was First Secretary of Lega Nord from 15 December 2013, succeeding Roberto Maroni. Salvini, a right-wing populist, lurched his party's views to the right during his leadership, earning the scorn of Umberto Bossi and the party's old guard, but leading to the party achieving its greatest electoral successes both in northern Italy and in the rest of the country. He went on to serve as Minister of the Interior from 1 June 2018 (succeeding Marco Minniti) and as Deputy Prime Minister from 1 June 2018 (succeeding Angelino Alfano).

Biography
Matteo Salvini was born of Milan, Lombardy, Italy in 1973, and he was involved with communist groups as a youth before changing his orientation to right-wing populism; he saw more leftist values in the European right than in some left-wing parties, including the defense of workers and fighting just battles. In 1990, he became a member of Lega Nord, and he became its city coordinator for Milan in 1992 and its city secretary in 1997. From 1993 to 2012, he served on the Milan City Council, and he served as an MEP from 2004 to 2006, in the Chamber of Deputies from 2008 to 2009, and as an MEP once more from 2009 to 2018. He became a hard Eurosceptic politician, especially criticizing the euro; he also opposed illegal immigration into Italy and the European Union, opposed the EU's management of asylum seekers, and was one of the leaders of a major populist wave which shook Europe during the 2010s, emphasizing anti-globalization, nativist, and protectionist stances. In 2013, he became First Secretary of his party, and he steered his party's views to the far-right; in 2018, his party became the third-largest party in Italy, and he entered into a coalition government with the Five Star Movement. Salvini and M5S leader Luigi Di Maio both became Deputy Prime Ministers, and Salvini also became Interior Minister. Salvini was a supporter of US president Donald Trump since the 2016 presidential election, and he held similar views and even the same election poster design.